Unleash Unbelievable Performance with the Cat^® Gas Mechanical System (GMS)

00:00:03 Speaker 1
This episode of the Energy Pipeline is sponsored by Caterpillar Oil and gas. Since the 1930s, Caterpillar has manufactured engines for drilling, production, well service, and gas compression. With more than 2100 dealer locations worldwide, Caterpillar offers customers a dedicated support team to assist with their premiere power solutions. Welcome to the Energy Pipeline Podcast with your host, Russell Stewart. Tune in each week to learn more about industry issues, tools and resources to streamline and modernize the future of the industry. Whether you work in oil and gas or bring a unique perspective, this podcast is your knowledge transfer hub. Welcome to the Energy Pipeline.

00:00:56 Russell Stewart
Hey, everybody. As always, thanks for listening. Today. My guest on the show is Andy Publes. Andy is the drilling and completion project manager for Caterpillar Oil and Gas. Is that right, Andy?

00:01:09 Andy Publes
Yeah, that's right. That's right, Russell.

00:01:11 Russell Stewart
Okay, well, you know, I had to ask at least one question that I already knew the answer to, because I usually ask questions I don't know the answer to. Andy, thanks for coming on the show today.

00:01:22 Andy Publes
It's my pleasure. My pleasure, Russell.

00:01:25 Russell Stewart
Okay, so, Andy, you've actually. You've got a master's degree in electrical engineering, is that right?

00:01:33 Andy Publes
Yes.

00:01:34 Russell Stewart
And that was from. Was it Bradley University?

00:01:39 Andy Publes
Yeah, that's right.

00:01:40 Russell Stewart
Oh, wow. Now I've asked. Now I've asked three questions I know the answer to. And. And as a matter of fact, I think you were a member of Phi Kappa Phi. That made you pretty smart, huh?

00:01:50 Andy Publes
Oh, wow, you dug that in from the archives.

00:01:54 Russell Stewart
Actually, it's on your LinkedIn profile, Andy.

00:01:57 Andy Publes
Oh, I see, I see.

00:02:00 Russell Stewart
Okay, so, Andy, we've got the. We've got the video on right now, which everybody who will be listening to this won't have the benefit of the video, but I can see you very clearly there. I don't know if you can see mine. I'm actually wearing my API the last golf tournament shirt. But you got a shirt on and it looks to me like. Does that say New York Yankees?

00:02:27 Andy Publes
Oh, yeah. I'm 100% New York Yankees fan.

00:02:30 Russell Stewart
You're a big New York. So are you from New York?

00:02:34 Andy Publes
No, no, no. Never live in New York. I'm actually was born in Cuba and was influenced by the New York Yankees since I was very little.

00:02:44 Russell Stewart
Well, my dad was born in Alabama and he was too, so he lived. He lived during the Mickey Mantle glory years and that sort of thing. So. So, Andy, where are you now? Are you in Houston?

00:02:56 Andy Publes
Yep, Houston, Texas. That's where our CAT oil and gas headquarters are. And so I'm here with a Big team that supports the oil and gas customers.

00:03:06 Russell Stewart
Okay, how long have you been in the industry?

00:03:10 Andy Publes
I have been in the oil and gas industry for the last five years. I have been with Caterpillar for 16 years. Engineering trade. Yeah.

00:03:21 Russell Stewart
So what did you do before you got into oil and gas?

00:03:25 Andy Publes
Mainly work on engines that serve multiple industries. Mining, construction industry, industrial locomotives. So it has been a fun ride. But I would say the decision to come to the oil and gas industry five years ago is probably one of the best decisions that I've made because it allowed me to be part of a team that is laser focused on tackling one of the most important challenges in this world, which is energy. And I'm also being amazed at the incredible innovation and the resiliency of this industry.

00:04:03 Russell Stewart
Well, and so that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about CAT Big machines and we're going to talk about innovation in the industry. Because I think right now you're kind of focused on what CAT calls their gas mechanical system. Is that right?

00:04:19 Andy Publes
That's right.

00:04:20 Russell Stewart
Okay, so tell us, tell us about that. Why was, I think you guys call it gms? Why was this GMS developed and why is it needed and what are its core benefits? Yeah, and now I'm asking you three questions in a row, so I'll probably just shut up from here for the rest of the interview.

00:04:42 Andy Publes
No problem. So the Caterpillar gas mechanical system, or for short we call it GMS. It's a 3600 horsepower integrated power system which was engineered specifically for the pressure pumping operation. And this system was built on the robust Cat G35 20 engine and the TH55 transmission and is designed specifically to deliver superior mechanical efficiency, high power density and to simplify the operation while allowing the customer to burn 100% natural gas. And so we think that with this design the customer is going to be able to get the benefits of reduced fuel costs, lower greenhouse gas emissions and having a smaller site footprint due to the power density of the product. Now, why it was developed and why it's needed. We first started by talking to the customers like we have done in previous products. And this is basically the foundation on how we develop new products and what has allowed us to win with our customers and develop strong relationship over the years. And in this case we wanted to understand deeply what are the challenges that were specific to the pressure pumping operation. And we learned that the customers were wanting to capitalize on the abundance of low cost natural gas for power generation and they're essentially trying to enhance their operational efficiency and reduce their emissions footprints. And so we look around our portfolio, even beyond the car, oil and gas portfolio, to see what technologies and products we can leverage to develop a solution that specifically address those pain points directly. And so by optimizing and simplifying the system with the G3520 and the TH55, we were able to simplify the conversion of fuel into a workable power and streamline that process architecture that allows the customer to leverage their industry expertise by using a traditional architecture, reduce the complexity that is on site, and essentially realize the value of the 100% natural gas.

00:07:15 Russell Stewart
Okay, now I'm still learning all these cat engines, so pardon my ignorance, but you said it's a 3600 horsepower. Is that big?

00:07:25 Andy Publes
That's a pretty big engine. It's based on our G35 20. And just to give you a reference, our 3512E Tier 4 DGB engine, that is a 2,500 horsepower. And so we have increased the power density for a given package by quite a bit.

00:07:45 Russell Stewart
Okay, so now are these things used on, on the drilling side or is this completions frac quad?

00:07:54 Andy Publes
Yeah, this specific gas mechanical system is for pressure pumping. So this would be for the completion part of the business.

00:08:03 Russell Stewart
Okay. All right, so you're using this GMS on the frac site and I guess how does that compare to other frac site approaches?

00:08:16 Andy Publes
Yeah, so, you know, if you look at the industry today, a lot of great innovation over the years. You know, we started a few years ago with essentially diesel engines that provided the power necessary for the, for the customer. And then over time, we migrated towards a dual fuel technology at around 2,500 horsepower. And recently, as the customer continues to focus on 100% natural gas, the emergence of electric frac has taken over the industry, which has been great to see that innovation. And we certainly participate with our gensets. This technology, like I said earlier, it's essentially looking at what the customer is actually trying to achieve and trying to provide a more optimal solution for them. So using the same power, I would say more efficiently. And in this case, what we have done is we have basically reduced the number of components that are needed from the fuel all the way to the hydraulic power. And by doing that, we essentially increase the efficiency of the overall system as well as the robustness of the of the system. So just think in simple terms, less component and simpler technology is better for the customer because there is less thing that can go wrong. And so you get increased reliability. But on top of that, on top of that, there is a couple more things that we are excited about this product, and one of them is the power density of the products. Like I said before, it is a 3600 horsepower engine. And once you reduce the auxiliaries and the other additional power that you need, you're essentially able to drive through that pump about 3,300 horsepower, which is quite a bit of power from a single trailer if you look at what is out there today running in the field. And lastly, the durability. By leveraging the G3520 engine and the TH55 transmission, we have two key foundational technologies that have a proven track record in the industry. We actually have millions of hours between those two components of fuel operation in the industry. So we're banking on that lesson learned and that technology to drive the durability that our customers expect from our products.

00:11:01 Russell Stewart
Yeah, so durability is very important because companies look at these things and they look at total cost of ownership. Is that right?

00:11:10 Andy Publes
Oh, yeah, absolutely.

00:11:13 Russell Stewart
And so this GMS system has some innovations in it that allow it to have high power density. Density. And the significance of that on the GMS gives you quite a bit of advantages, doesn't it?

00:11:31 Andy Publes
Oh, yeah, yep.

00:11:33 Russell Stewart
And so this is obviously a relatively new technology. Where are you using this?

00:11:42 Andy Publes
Yeah, we're in the early stage of what we call a few follow. And so we have, I would say, a handful of units out in the field. They're in the Permian basins and we have in other locations within North America as well. But the results of those few follow so far has been quite exciting, to be honest. Russell. We have seen our customers achieve up to 13 barrels per minute and pumping for over 20 hours per day. And that's exciting because when you compare that against other technologies, that's quite a bit of productivity that the customer is able to get from a single trailer. Now we understand the unique nature of the oil and gas industry and the uniqueness of our product development approach in this case. And so we're learning alongside our customers and we're performing planned product updates as we learn through data analytics on how to further optimize our solution. And so we're not stopping at what we've seen so far. We're continuing to innovate in that space and we're fully committed to supporting our customers. We have been for the last hundred years. And if need to, we will quickly deploy our product support team to ensure that the product meets their expectations. So we're excited. It's early, but we're, we're ready if we need to make any modifications to the product.

00:13:14 Russell Stewart
Okay, so CAT has a lot of different engines and transmission platforms that they could choose from. So can you delve into why you did this G3500 engine and what'd you say it was? A TH55 transmission, is that right?

00:13:30 Andy Publes
Yeah. TH55. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's start with the G3520 engine. That engine is a high power density engine. And that power density is attributed to several factors. One of them is the advanced design of the engine. But we have also, when we build it, use high performance components and efficient combustion processes. And so what that does is it allows us to put more power through that engine without sacrificing the life of the engine. And as we talk to the customers, power density was a key factor that they were looking for. We specifically use features like ultralin burn technology which allow us to optimize the efficiency of the engine and also minimize the emissions. But we also have advanced control systems to be able to achieve the transient response that the customer is expecting from this package. And that's one of the uniqueness of this solution is that we are able to run our power system with just an engine and a transmission and be able to achieve the load acceptance that the customer is looking for. From a TH55 perspective, that's a product that is we have several, multiple thousands of them in the field and it has a reputation of reliability. And so what we wanted to do is we wanted to leverage that foundational technology and make improvement to be able to achieve the load acceptance that the customer needs. But in simple terms, we're basically lean on the power density of the two components and on the durability of them. And all of the lesson learned that we had over the years to be able to deliver something that is specifically built for completions, specifically for pressure pumping applications.

00:15:44 Russell Stewart
And because of its durability and innovativeness, that is the kind of thing that drives down total cost of ownership or capex or whatever.

00:15:55 Andy Publes
Exactly. And from a CAPEX standpoint, we looked at it in very simple terms with the simplified solutions that we have, which is a traditional architecture, meaning an engine driving a transmission driving a pump. What that simplified solution does is it essentially enables our customer to burn 100% gas at a significant lower capital expenditure. We achieve that by essentially reducing the number of components that you need from burning fuel to creating hydraulic horsepower. And so less components on site drive lower capex.

00:16:41 Russell Stewart
Okay. So that's quite a, quite a list of benefits for EMPs. Anything else I missed?

00:16:53 Andy Publes
Yeah, from an EMP perspective, I would say probably the most important is the ability to provide significant fuel savings to the customer and reduce emissions, which we touched on early on. But also one of the things that we're excited about, and I'll give you three things, one of them is our solution have demonstrated consistent reliability in these early stages of the fuel follow. And so that allows the EMPs to achieve the type of pumping intensity that they are wanting to, to, to hit. And if you think, if you look at the market and where the market is going, there is more and more desire to pump for 20, 21, 22, 23 hours a day to be able to achieve the efficiencies that the customers are, are looking for. But number two is the maintenance intensive. With our solutions, we're aiming to minimize the maintenance requirement. We have fewer components like I mentioned, and a gas engine has a simpler combustion technology. And so with those two, we're expecting to significantly improve the maintenance intervals compared with the technologies that are out there today and reduce the operational disruptions that can drive NPT on site. Then the last thing that I'm excited about from an EMP perspective is our fuel flexibility and adaptability. With our package we have the ability to utilize a wide range of fuel gas compositions and we also have the ability to adapt to different type of gas because one of the things that we have seen in the field is some of our customers are mixing CNG and fuel gas and that creates challenges for engines. But because we're able to build this engine from the ground up for pressure pumping applications, we make sure that that feature was included within the technology.

00:19:06 Russell Stewart
So the service companies, I'd love you too. Huh?

00:19:10 Andy Publes
We did not forget about our service customers. You know, for them it's a different perspective. And that was the great thing of how we decided to come up with this technology is basically listening to the EMPs and their needs and then listening to the service companies and their needs and then balancing the two and focus on driving value to both pieces of the value change for our service company. I would say the first one and I'll give you three, just the same way that I gave you for the amp. Number one, it's allowing the customers to use approving technologies. A lot of our service companies are used to using the TH55 and they have used the G3520 in the power generation space. And all we have done here is made modifications to be able to meet the application requirements. But a lot of the technology is based on the product that they're used to and that their field personnel are used to. And so with that proven technologies, it empowers the service provider to focus on their core competencies and be able to continue to drive efficiency. The second one is based on the proven technology. We're offering a scalable solution. With this solution, like I said, the personal skill set aligns with the needs of the product. And so by leveraging that architecture that is a traditional compared with what is out in the field today, we're able to leverage all of the lesson learned from the past years and allow the customer to quickly scale up with this solution because they're running a product that they can trust. Lastly, but not the least, is our product support. One of the areas that we take pride on is our extensive dealer support network as well as the support that we provide through value agreement, which allows the customer to get the support that they need and focus on the areas that they're wanting to focus, which is pumping sound down the hole.

00:21:37 Russell Stewart
Well, folks, at that service aspect, that may be, that may be worth your price of admission today on the, on the podcast. So, so Andy, I was, I was going to, and I often ask this question, you know, we're, we're looking at, at the future, what the future holds for, you know, EMP and service companies and the oil and gas industry in general. Although it almost sounds like what you've got here, the future's now. Where are you going to go from here?

00:22:12 Andy Publes
Well, I will tell you the future is very exciting. It's very exciting for the industry, it's very exciting for our customers and it's very exciting for Caterpillar. And I will give you my point of view on the future, but I don't have a crystal ball. Otherwise I would tell you that the New York Yankees are going to be winning this season, but that didn't happen last year. I hope that it happens this year.

00:22:37 Russell Stewart
They have to get past the Astros first, Andy.

00:22:40 Andy Publes
Oh yeah, and the Dodgers.

00:22:43 Russell Stewart
Yeah, right.

00:22:45 Andy Publes
But look, looking, looking at the industry where we're recognizing the industry focus on burning low cost natural gas. And we're aligning our portfolio and our research and development to deliver tailored solutions that meets both the mechanical as well as the electrical power generation. And in this case the gas mechanical system will fit via the mechanical power generation. But we have solution for both. But we also seen a continuous interest in comprehensive distributed power solutions. We're seeing that our customers are focusing it. There is Multiple applications driving the need for power. And in some cases the current infrastructure cannot meet that demand. Whether it is need for utility or power, or whether it is need for just raw power from mechanical engines. We have also seen that our customers have continued to focus on applications that are adjacent to pressure pumpings, whether that is in power generations, data centers and things like that. And so we feel like our advantage lies in our ability to operate and leverage experience for multiple industries. And so we have our electric power division, we have our oil and gas division. And so together we have millions of hours of proven experience in the harshest conditions and applications in the world. And so we feel like we have the solutions to be able to meet the needs of our customers. Whether that is pressure pumping application, whether it is drilling or like I said, whether it is providing powers for other applications outside of oil and gas, this gas mechanical system, we're excited about it and we feel like that is some a solution that is going to provide tangible value to our customer for years to come. But it also exemplifies Caterpillar's commitment to creating comprehensive power solutions. So we're not providing an engine, we're not providing a transmission, but we're providing an integrated power pack that essentially drive additional value beyond what the customer would get by buying individual components. And so with the CAT gms, we're essentially Russell enhancing our portfolio. We like to see ourselves as total site solution provider and always balancing our R and D between productivity and the sustainability related goals that our customers have.

00:25:40 Russell Stewart
Well, Andy, that sounds very exciting and again, I want to thank you for coming on the show and sharing this. We'll put your LinkedIn contact info in our show notes so that anybody who wants more specific information can reach out directly to you. And before we sign off, anything else you want to add?

00:26:08 Andy Publes
Well, one of the things that I wanted to highlight actually tomorrow we are celebrating. Caterpillar is celebrating its centennial anniversary tomorrow.

00:26:21 Russell Stewart
Okay. So yeah, so folks, we're actually going to, we're going to try to get this out this week. We're actually recording on April 14th. So you're saying on April 15th, tax day, that's your anniversary?

00:26:36 Andy Publes
Yeah, yeah. And you know, it's something that is allowing me to look back and reflect at my journey in 16 years within Caterpillar. But you know, Caterpillar, our purpose in Caterpillar is to help our customers build a better and more sustainable world. And we take a lot of pride in the products and services that we deliver as well as the people that are behind them. And so we're very excited about the journey into the next 100 years in providing products and solutions to help our customers develop their solutions for their own customers. And so in our case, if I think about the development of the gas mechanical system, it underscores Caterpillar unique synergy and our ability to deploy purpose built solutions for the customer. And so I'm just excited to continue to develop solutions and walking in step with our customers by listening to them and continue to be forward thinkers in this industry and drive innovation into the next hundred years. So very excited about that and continuing to innovate in this space along with the rest of the industry.

00:27:59 Russell Stewart
Okay, so, so tomorrow, tell me again the number. The anniversary number is 100 years. 100 years. Okay. All right, so I tell you what, Andy, when it's anniversary the next 100 years, you and I will do that. You and I will do, absolutely.

00:28:16 Andy Publes
And I, I hope that we'll get at least one more championship in those 100 years out there.

00:28:22 Russell Stewart
Okay. All right. Hey Andy, thanks again. I really appreciate it. And, and it might not be a hundred years, but we, we will do it again in the future. So.

00:28:33 Andy Publes
Pleasure talking to you, Russell.

00:28:35 Russell Stewart
You bet. And it's, as always, it's a pleasure to be able to, to bring these podcasts to our audience. As always, and as we said, it's beginning. Thanks for listening and making us a top rated podcast in oil and gas. Please help us stay on top by sharing with your friends and posting on LinkedIn and leaving reviews and we'll see you next time.

00:28:59 Speaker 1
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